become—as he had when he picked me up—the terror
of the neighbourhood, and all honest men shunned
him; when there were for years none whom
she dared to visit, none who dared visit her;
and when for months, in every year, her husband
was away, following his own devices; she sat
patiently at home, true to her faith in Heaven,
and the man whom she had married. From her
simple defence of him, when sometimes we were
together in his absence, and before I knew how
much defence he needed, I caught almost the
first shadow of my doubt. Every one, she said,
was jealous of his talents. Envy made people
his enemies; besides, unhappily (that was indeed
some grief to her), he had been misconstrued
because he did not go to church. But his heart
was so warm, he was so generous, she said, as
she ate, shivering with frost by a few flickering
coals, her scanty, solitary meal.

Could there be need, for so much parsimony,
when I had just paid my friend eight hundred
and fifty pounds. I had only twenty-five
sovereigns left, outside whatever might arise
as earnings from the practice, and I could
not see the use of living upon water and
potatoes.

One evening, there sat by the small basket of
embers in our surgery an old man angered by
the toothache. He planted himself on a stool.
Dr. Hawley was expected home that night.
Nobody should pull out his tooth but Doctor
Hawley. He was a clever man, whatever he
was. He meant to wait for him, so he sat down
and grunted for a long time, till I ventured on a
word of sympathy.

"You may just keep your pity for yourself,
young man."

"Why? What do you mean?"

"Doctor Hawley's a deal cleverer than Master
Pawley knows. But you'll not be the first to
find it out."

I had already fallen into the first stage of
heartache, and gave weight to the man's words.
But I paid no outward heed to them, and did
not answer him. After another ten minutes
the toothache suddenly abated, and the sense of
relief from pain touched the old fellow's mind,
I suppose, for he suddenly broke out with—

"Hang it, I can't abide seeing you sit there
by that glum candle, looking so young and so
pale, without telling you right forward you're
done for. There!"

"You may tell me what you please. Perhaps
you mean well."

"I mean that the sooner you be gone the
better. I've known this house eighteen years,
and never have seen aught in it but misery.
Ask any man, woman, or child in Beetleborough.
Doctor Hawley's most amazing clever, but if
there's a wickeder creature on the earth or
under the earth——"

"Then why do you come to him? Why do
you wait for him? Why have you anything to
do with him?"

"Because he's the best doctor in the county.
None of the gentlefolks or tradesfolks come to him.
I'm one of his patients. He'll do me good, and
then I know he'll squeeze me. But I want to
be done good to now—I'll take my chance about
the squeezing. Many a poor man he's charged
ten pounds for a week's illness, and had him to the
Court of Requests, and at last clapped him into
prison."The man's tongue once loose, wagged
for an hour, pouring incident on incident of
fraud and cruelty.

"I do not believe all this scandal. Doctor
Hawley is in London even now for a kind
purpose."

"He's in London now about two lawsuits,
that's where he is. And that's where all the
money goes that ever he has got. He's never
out of lawsuits, and he'll soon be having one
with you. Nobody put you on your guard,
I suppose, when you first came here. Lots
of us were sorry, but there wasn't one dared
speak. It's actionable to speak truth of such a
man."

"What if I tell him all you have been saying?"

"Keep it to yourself, young man, and turn
it over. Look about, ask questions, and then
go back home."

The doctor did not return that night, nor
for another fortnight. To my written complaint
that there was no practice at all, he replied that
patients no doubt waited until he returned. He
was ashamed to be so much absorbed over poor
Watts, and so forth. When he did return it
was but for three days, during which his
behaviour strengthened every suspicion. Then he
went back again to London.

In the mean time, I was practising among
the poor, and giving to my housekeeper, one
after the other, the twenty-five sovereigns which
were all that I had to live upon. When they
were all gone, the domestic assured me, with a
bright face, that ready money did not matter,
for I had the best of credit; and, since food was
necessary, I began to live on credit and run into
debt. No money whatever came to me from
the practice. Nobody called upon me. But I
lived quietly, made humble friends, saw that a
fierce battle was before me, and made strong
resolve, helpless as I might seem to be, that I
would not succumb.

During my partner's second absence I
procured distinct and legal evidence of the gross
fraud that had been practised on me. I did not
learn till afterwards how it was that the vicar's
countenance had been obtained for the delusion
of my uncle. Dr. Hawley, when our
correspondence began, suddenly frequented the
church services, and made, in the eyes of an
evangelical preacher, so much ostentation of
conversion through his ministry, that the good
vicar, believing himself to be in a fair way to
save a soul, would not risk disappointment in so
great a work by staying away from a supper. It
was the first and the last time of his supping in
that house, for he soon saw what use had been
made of him.

It may not seem to be an easy thing for a
white-haired flute-playing boy of twenty-two,
who has been fooled out of all his substance,